During troubleshooting, a technician notices that a Windows service configured with the Automatic startup type failed to start during boot, generating an event-log error. The technician manually starts the service, and it runs normally during the current session.
Which of the following best describes what this outcome means?
The service will start automatically on the next boot because Windows records the manual intervention.
The manual start fixed the underlying cause, and no further action is required.
The startup type has automatically changed to Automatic (Delayed Start), permanently resolving the issue.
The manual start only restores functionality temporarily; additional investigation is needed to determine and correct the root cause (such as dependency failure, timeout, or misconfiguration).
Manually starting the service restores functionality only for the current session; it does not correct whatever prevented the service from starting automatically (for example, a dependency that is not running, a timeout such as ServicesPipeTimeout, or misconfiguration). Additional investigation-reviewing Event Viewer, checking dependencies, adjusting time-out values, or correcting configuration-is required to ensure the service starts correctly on the next boot.
Sources:
A service set to Automatic may fail to start at boot yet start manually later because Windows terminates slow-starting services; the underlying issue must still be fixed
Microsoft notes that services can fail to start within the default timeout and require configuration changes such as increasing ServicesPipeTimeout rather than manual restarts
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